published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

Thesis--Air Command and Staff College, Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, April 2005. / "April 2007." Thesis advisor: Lt. Col. James A. Rothenflue. Performed by Air University Press (AUL/LP), Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Ala. "AU/ACSC/2927/2004-05." Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-37). Also available online from the Air University Research Information Management System (AURIMS) and the DTIC Online Web sites.

No description available.

<p>Pilot training and certification have largely remained the same since the Practical Test Standards (PTS) were issued more than twenty years ago by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Within the last several years, the general aviation training sector has acquired the capability to collect and analyze digital data from certain training aircraft. With the implementation of digital information analysis, a more accurate picture of the capabilities of student pilots is possible. These advancements could be used by flight instructors in the assessment process of flight students. With the inclusion of digital data from the aircraft, the cognitive load necessary to make an accurate assessment of a student’s performance could be affected, ideally in a positive manner. Cognitive load researchers typically focus on three aspects to enhance the likelihood of success in learning or task completion. There are three techniques to reduce cognitive load: (a) reduce extraneous load, (b) manage intrinsic load, and (c) optimize germane load (Young, Cate, O’Sullivan, & Irby, 2016). The current research project focused on the impact to the cognitive load of flight instructors who were presented with digital information retrieved from an airplane during their assessment of a student pilot’s aircraft landing competence, endorsement readiness for initial solo, the willingness of the instructor to mentor the student, and how well they liked the student pilot. The study found that a digital condition, when presented alone, created extraneous cognitive load and did not enable flight instructors to accurately rate student landing performance. Additionally, flight instructors were not able to use a combined digital + traditional condition to accurately assess student landing performance. When student performance was on the extreme (i.e. ‘poor’ and ‘good’), flight instructors were better able to determine whether or not a student was ready for a solo endorsement, but instructors did have difficulty distinguishing an ‘average’ student from a ‘good’ performing student. Lastly, all of the conditions presented failed to provide the proper visualizations to allow participants to make assessments of their willingness to mentor the students, and participants indicated that they did not like the students presented with the digital condition. Digital visualizations from aircraft data will require careful development in order to limit the extraneous load and reduce the intrinsic load for student flight assessment, and should be developed in collaboration with flight instructors to provide information to assist the analysis of student flight performance. </p>

abstract: There are significantly higher rates of pilot error events during surface operations at night than during the day. Events include incidents, accidents, wrong surface takeoffs and landings, hitting objects, turning on the wrong taxiway, departing the runway surface, among others. There is evidence to suggest that these events are linked to situational awareness. Improvements to situational awareness can be accomplished through training to instruct pilots to increase attention outside of the cockpit while taxiing at night. However, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) night time requirements are relatively low to obtain a private pilot certification. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of flight training experience on conducting safe and incident-free surface operations at night, collect pilot opinions on night training requirements and resources, and analyze the need for night time on flight reviews. A survey was distributed to general aviation pilots and 239 responses were collected to be analyzed. The responses indicated a higher observed incident rate at night than during the day, however there were no significant effects of night training hours or type of training received (Part 61, Part 141/142, or both) on incident rate. Additionally, higher total night hours improved pilot confidence at night and decreased incident rate. The overall opinions indicated that FAA resources on night flying were effective in providing support, but overall pilots were not in support of or against adding night time requirements to flight reviews and found night training requirements to be somewhat effective. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Aerospace Engineering 2020

No description available.

Giang Tsz Sheung Keith. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 2001-2002, design report." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93). / Chapter 00 --- synopsis --- p.Page 01 / Chapter 01 --- Theme and Concept --- p.Page 03 / Chapter 02 --- Research --- p.Page 15 / Chapter 03 --- Site --- p.Page 29 / Chapter 04 --- Program --- p.Page 37 / Chapter 05 --- Master plan --- p.Page 46 / Chapter 06 --- Preliminary design concept / ideas --- p.Page 50 / Chapter 07 --- Design Development --- p.Page 60 / Chapter 08 --- Design / special studies --- p.Page 78 / Chapter 09 --- Design / general public experience --- p.Page 83 / Chapter 10 --- Design / cadet pilot experience --- p.Page 87 / Chapter 11 --- Schedule --- p.Page 92 / Chapter 12 --- Reference --- p.Page 93 / Chapter 13 --- Appendix --- p.Page 94 / Chapter 14 --- Acknowledgement --- p.Page 98

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of History / Donald J. Mrozek / This study analyzes the effect of the Army Air Forces’ wartime experience on the selection and training of aviation cadets and the steps taken by the Army Air Forces to reduce the number of accidents and fatalities. Over the course of the war, the US Army Air Forces suffered over 54,000 accidents in the continental United States. These accidents accounted for over 15,000 fatalities, the equivalent of a World War Two infantry division. As a result of this wartime experience the Army Air Forces began instituting and enforcing stricter safety measures and emphasizing safety in all phases of training. By the end of the war, the Army Air Forces had transitioned from an organization with loose standards for selection, training, and safety to one with formal procedures for all three. In the process, the Army Air Forces established a new culture of professionalism for the US Air Force.

The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate currently commercially available head mounted virtual reality displays for potential use in pilot training simulators. For this purpose acommercial simulator was modified to display the virtual environment in an Oculus RiftDK2 headset. A typical monitor based setup was used to provide a set of hardware requirements which the VR implementation had to meet or exceed to be considered potentially usable for pilot training simulators. User tests were then performed with a group of users representative of those normally using pilot training simulators, including both pilots and engineers working with simulator development. The main focus of the user tests was to evaluate some potential weaknesses found in the technical comparison (such as when a measured parameter was close to the lower limit defined by the monitor based setup) and to make a measurement of the usability of the VR implementation. The results from the technical comparison showed that the technical requirements were met and in most cases also exceeded. There were however some potential weaknesses revealed during the user tests, which included screen resolution and the field of view. There was one main critical deficiency found during the user tests. This was the lack of interaction with the aircraft as users were only able to interact with the flight stick and throttle lever. While this enabled the users to control many aspects of the aircraft (by using buttons and other controls fitted on the flight stick/throttle) in a training scenario a user also has to be able to interact with other switches and/or monitors in the cockpit. This was however a known limitation of the implementation and thus didn’t affect the tested parts of the simulator. The user tests also confirmed that the resolution was a potential problem, but that the overall usability was high. Thus the VR implementation had potential for use in a pilot training simulator, if the critical issues found during the user tests were solved.

Task prioritization performance was evaluated for pilots who participated in a concurrent task management (CTM) training course and pilots who did not. CTM is the process by which pilots selectively attend to high priority tasks and shed non-priority tasks. Twenty seven pilots enrolled in a university flight technology program were randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control group. Pilots flew pretest and posttest simulated flights on an FAA approved flight training device (FTD). Twenty potential task prioritization errors were embedded at 14 locations within the flight scenarios. Pretest CTM performance of the two groups was comparable. During a two week period between pretest and posttest simulated flights pilots in the experimental group participated in a CTM training course designed and taught by an FAA certified flight instructor and pilots in the control group did not. A Mann-Whitney U test rejected the null hypothesis that there was no difference in posttest CTM errors between the groups, indicating a positive training effect for experimental group pilots. Longer term training effects were not evaluated. Different cognitive processing models described various pilot behaviors; some behaviors were described by single channel theory, some by single resource theory, and others by multiple resource theory. Mispriotization due to the interruption of an aviate task by a communicate task occurred more frequently than interruption of a navigate task by a communicate task. Fixation on the GPS navigational system caused more than half the pilots to deviate from primary aviate tasks to attend to the secondary navigate task. Additional research with different participants is recommended. A study comparing training results between pilots who have different training backgrounds is also recommended. A longer time period between pretest and posttest and/or a longitudinal study is recommended to test for longer term training effects. Qualitative studies could also be used to enhance experiments, such as gathering responses from participants to discern the extent of their learning. Further studies using cockpits with higher levels of automation and complexity, such as new generation flat panel or 3D cockpit displays is recommended. / Graduation date: 2005